Policy, Research and the Development of School Counselling in Malta: Lessons Learnt in a Small-Island Community

Abstract

This paper explores the growth of school counselling in Malta and addresses current issues faced in this small-island community. Counselling has grown considerably on the island in the last 8 to 10 years, having been introduced by the Catholic Church in the 1950s and then taken into schools in the 1970s. Malta regulated the counselling profession in 2015 and is the only European country where counselling is a legally warranted profession requiring Master’s level of training. The University of Malta started organising master’s programmes in 2008, and a new specialist post-master’s certificate in supervision will be offered from October 2017. This chapter celebrates the growth of counselling in a small-island community and addresses current challenges, such as a lack of adequate supervision for counsellors working in schools and insufficient numbers of counsellors in schools. A model for school counselling will be presented for the consideration of readers, as well as focusing on local policy research.